International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Despite differences in individual countries, the history of women's movements in Eastern Europe can be divided into three periods: the time when these movements originated and gained their first achievements in the mid-nineteenth until the early twentieth centuries; the era after World War II, when women were officially liberated by the socialist state; and finally the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when women's movements again emerged in their original diversity. The first women's organizations in Eastern Europe date from the mid-nineteenth century. Most of the countries in the region were striving for national independence (Hungarians, Czechs, and Slovaks from the Habsburg Monarchy; the Poles from the Russian Empire; the Bulgarians from the Ottoman Empire) and women's movements were formed alongside the nationalist movements. In Bulgaria, for example, the first women's organizations were formed during the National Revival in the 1860s and 1870s. In Poland, around the year 1840, a group named the Enthusiasts was created by women left alone after the emigration of men defeated during the 1830–1 uprising against Russian rule. In the Czech lands, women actively participated in the National Awakening (mainly in the cultural and educational spheres, but also on the barricades during the June 1848 uprising). The major figures from this era include Bohuslava Rajská, ... log in or subscribe to read full text